Review 734: War of the Worlds (2005)

 

Based on the science fiction novel The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells; Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a blue collar dock worker who, when an alien invasion threatens the future of humanity, must race to keep his family safe.

At its core, Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds is an anti-war film; throughout the film, civilians run and only try to save themselves and their family as opposed to fighting back against the tripods. There’s an every-man-for-himself vibe to the   For his part, Ray doesn’t try to help anyone else on the road. In one scene, he actually delays the departure of a ferry so that he and his kids can scramble aboard. and does away with typical sci-fi action movie cliches like the destruction of famous landmarks and generals standing around a large map pushing ships with big sticks into place trading the former for more localised destruction which helps to make the invasion feel closer to home. Unlike Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. where Earth was visited by benevolent aliens, War of the Worlds is very much about the horror of an alien invasion. The grander narrative of the Tripod invasion is left largely vauge to great effect, giving the film a strong sense of claustrophobia. 

All of this is excuted by some frighteningly realistic special effects, an astonishing blend of practical and CG to create The score by John Williams is haunting    and a climactic scene as Ray, Rachel and a bunch of other civillians attempt to escape a killer Tripod basket.  The Tripods themselves are a remarkable peice of design work, giving them an almost graceful look without being too mechanical and remaining faithful to the illustations from the original novel. What makes them such a scary alien threat is their coldness, dominating in size but never viscious; they're on a planet-wide genocide but they don't actively hunt down humans, they vaporising people as casually as someone spraying flee powder. 

Ray Ferrier is not an intrinsically likeable character, watching him in introductory scene, we get the sense that he's someone who peaked in high school and never really grew up or took responsibility as a parent, he tires way too hard to be the cool dad, he struggles to relate to his kids; they think he’s a dweeb and that it's their bad luck they're stuck with him and yet Cruise remains charismatic and watchable regardless embuing the character with determination and over the course, he goes to great lengths to protect his kids, make up for his absense in their lives and grows closer to them. Unlike most of Cruise's roles, Ray Ferrier is not an action hero but an average blue colar worker who's trying to keep his kids alive, so seeing him survive these dangerous senarios just by the skin of his teeth is emotionally satisfying.

Dakota Fanning is fantastic playing Ray's daughter Rachel, she makes you feel her fear in every frame she's in as well as  There are times where she seems more mature than Ray is and isn't afraid to call him out on his

Justin Chatwin does solid work as Ray's son Robbie, but the writing for him is more inconsistent. At first glance, Robbie is meant to be the responsible, older brother, acting as the father figure that Ray never was but once  he develops this innate desire to join the army and fight back against the Tripods. Robbie's determination to join the marrines is very clearly inspired by teens fighting in the Gaza Strip throwing rocks and bottles at tanks and he's clearly at the age when he doesn't fully consider the consequences of his actions because he's caught in the moment and passion, whether it's a good idea or not, but the script never went out of its way to justify Robbie's impulsive and dare I say erratic behaviour.

Miranda Otto (whom you'll recognise as Eowyn in The Lord of the Rings), Amy Ryan, Rick Gonzalez  round out the cast in